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the_wanlorn's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Less about diving than I wanted.
vermilionred's review
3.0
Pretty disjointed. I liked the middle part best. I kind of wanted it to have romance, even though it didn't? Characterization was... not bad, but kind of distant? I didn't feel like the heroine ever got pushed to the ragged edge, which I feel is unusual but not strictly speaking *bad*. Central mystery tech was super cool. I enjoyed it.
sunsoar25's review against another edition
4.0
I just happened to stumble upon this book at a thrift shop and I'm so glad I decided to take a chance on it. It hit most all of the right notes for me. I need to try the rest of this series asap.
jmoses's review
3.0
Eh. Interesting, but not tons. Too little detail and backstory for it to be really captivating, bit there's potential in the universe.
medium_dave's review
3.0
About 45 pages in, I though, "Say, I'll bet this was a short story once." Yep, it was.
There's some interesting stuff under the hood, but the writing style put me off from the beginning. It's very staccato and impersonal. There's lots of internal monologues and feelings and then expressed in dialogue, too. Not amazing.
It's short, though, and, again, some cool stuff, but it would've been better off as a couple of short stories in some sci-fi anthologies.
There's some interesting stuff under the hood, but the writing style put me off from the beginning. It's very staccato and impersonal. There's lots of internal monologues and feelings and then expressed in dialogue, too. Not amazing.
It's short, though, and, again, some cool stuff, but it would've been better off as a couple of short stories in some sci-fi anthologies.
justiceofkalr's review
3.0
This is an overall good but very uneven book. Some of the rules of this world make no sense. Only an hour of oxygen in suits? Suits that rip open on any sharp corner? These people are zipping around space and have all this tech but can’t make decent space suits? It’s ridiculous enough that it really kept throwing me out of the story. I did like the overall story though and will probably check out the next book.
paradoxically's review
4.0
Super enjoyed this! It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea--the book is essentially divided into three distinct parts and there's not much in the way of action, though there's plenty in the way of tension. It's also in first person POV (your mileage may vary) and a couple of the characters have some truly awful (nick)names (Squishy. Turtle. Boss). And the book just nestled close to my heart because there's a Mystery In Space and there are strange creepy places (that I, uh, basically wanted the characters to explore more and if there's a regret it's that they didn't do that).
Boss (yes, unfortunate name. Nickname. Something) is one of those people you just kind of grow fond of and don't really know why. She's a loner and is perfectly content with this (yay). She's competent, but she knows very well when people have more experience/knowledge than her and she's not afraid to utilize those people. At the same time she's passionate about history and believes that the wrecks she dives into are important for historical value. Also, she wants to assuage her curiosity. It's a little low key, but this curiosity is a big part of who she is and I can't help but become excited alongside of her.
My favorite part about the books is the mystery behind everything. And the slight creep factor. I don't even think I'm explaining this right, haha. You can take something rather ordinary, give it a little twist of something other and suddenly it becomes electrifying. For example, the Room of Lost Souls (which is the middle of the three parts of the book). It's a room on an abandoned station that basically lets people in and nobody comes out. See that? That right there? I love things like that.
But don't get me wrong, the book has flashes of what I detailed above, but a lot of it (most of it, admittedly) is planning and other stuff. The actual exploration doesn't last all that long and you come away with a few questions as well as answers. And there's not a lot of action either. No great shoot outs or anything like that. There's a lot of tension, but also a lot of introspection.
The actual plot is--well, at first you're not sure where the book is going and what it's trying to accomplish. You see the stirrings of a plot, but the first third is basically an extended introduction into Boss's world. The second third is build up for the last third of the book, which segues nicely into the next book. But I did enjoy this book. It made me a bit sad, but prodded at my curiosity. I disliked a few characters, but mostly I liked them. You don't really delve into other people's pasts or see who they truly are as people for the most part though; Diving Into the Wreck is very much centered on Boss. 4 stars.
Boss (yes, unfortunate name. Nickname. Something) is one of those people you just kind of grow fond of and don't really know why. She's a loner and is perfectly content with this (yay). She's competent, but she knows very well when people have more experience/knowledge than her and she's not afraid to utilize those people. At the same time she's passionate about history and believes that the wrecks she dives into are important for historical value. Also, she wants to assuage her curiosity. It's a little low key, but this curiosity is a big part of who she is and I can't help but become excited alongside of her.
My favorite part about the books is the mystery behind everything. And the slight creep factor. I don't even think I'm explaining this right, haha. You can take something rather ordinary, give it a little twist of something other and suddenly it becomes electrifying. For example, the Room of Lost Souls (which is the middle of the three parts of the book). It's a room on an abandoned station that basically lets people in and nobody comes out. See that? That right there? I love things like that.
But don't get me wrong, the book has flashes of what I detailed above, but a lot of it (most of it, admittedly) is planning and other stuff. The actual exploration doesn't last all that long and you come away with a few questions as well as answers. And there's not a lot of action either. No great shoot outs or anything like that. There's a lot of tension, but also a lot of introspection.
The actual plot is--well, at first you're not sure where the book is going and what it's trying to accomplish. You see the stirrings of a plot, but the first third is basically an extended introduction into Boss's world. The second third is build up for the last third of the book, which segues nicely into the next book. But I did enjoy this book. It made me a bit sad, but prodded at my curiosity. I disliked a few characters, but mostly I liked them. You don't really delve into other people's pasts or see who they truly are as people for the most part though; Diving Into the Wreck is very much centered on Boss. 4 stars.
wendycherie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
lyrrael's review
4.0
I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book when I dove into it (forgive the pun). It turned out that it grew on me. The first part of the book definitely feels like a completely different story from the second, and it even had inklings of space horror -- something which I appreciate and find too little of. That it was an explainable phenomenon disappointed me a little, but I still enjoyed the twists and turns the book took.
An interesting kind of touristy shipwreck exploration, history and amateurish archaeology, led by someone who is cautious to a fault, occasionally fearful, nonviolent, frustrating and who tries to be a good, safety conscious manager, but who occasionally gets caught up in her own desires. Someone who is, in other words, human. I appreciated how down-to-earth the whole thing was.
Cool. Worth the read.
An interesting kind of touristy shipwreck exploration, history and amateurish archaeology, led by someone who is cautious to a fault, occasionally fearful, nonviolent, frustrating and who tries to be a good, safety conscious manager, but who occasionally gets caught up in her own desires. Someone who is, in other words, human. I appreciated how down-to-earth the whole thing was.
Cool. Worth the read.
thymrman's review
3.0
While I found myself enjoying this book, I don’t know if I’m going to continue with the series overall. The characters are enjoyable enough, with each person having their own specialties and secrets that they protect due to various circumstances. And everyone ends up filling roles and playing a part in the mission and story. Though I feel some of them don’t really get any development or involvement in the story. Besides the main 2 or 3 people in each section, the rest of the cast could have just been faceless and nameless goons and it wouldn’t have changed anything about the story or how I thought about them.
The technology and the world give result in an interesting setup for stories and dealing with forgotten tech offers up many possibilities for the stories to go. While at the same time I feel like some of the actual technology didn’t really get developed upon and left me confused how this system actually works. I would have liked more details and explanations for how this all works.
But for the reason I don’t really think I’ll read the rest of the series, while I enjoyed it, I don’t really feel invested in reading what is going to be a prolonged military campaign with these characters. I liked the idea of the main character putting together the histories and stories and myths and trying to find the truth behind the events in what was more of a mystery novel than a space opera. But the portions of the book without this, when it was a bit more straightforward with guns and bombs and action just didn’t do anything for me and felt bland.
The technology and the world give result in an interesting setup for stories and dealing with forgotten tech offers up many possibilities for the stories to go. While at the same time I feel like some of the actual technology didn’t really get developed upon and left me confused how this system actually works. I would have liked more details and explanations for how this all works.
But for the reason I don’t really think I’ll read the rest of the series, while I enjoyed it, I don’t really feel invested in reading what is going to be a prolonged military campaign with these characters. I liked the idea of the main character putting together the histories and stories and myths and trying to find the truth behind the events in what was more of a mystery novel than a space opera. But the portions of the book without this, when it was a bit more straightforward with guns and bombs and action just didn’t do anything for me and felt bland.